Former rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae suffered damage when her channel was deleted due to an error in the YouTube algorithm. She almost lost about 60,000 subscribers, but YouTube deemed it a 'mistake.'
On the 12th, a report from OSEN revealed that the cause of the incident, where Son Yeon-jae's YouTube channel was deleted and then restored, was indeed a mistake by YouTube's algorithm. On the 11th, Son Yeon-jae's personal YouTube channel was shut down with a notice stating it 'violated community guidelines.' However, as a result of the production team's appeal, it was confirmed that there were no violations, and the error lay in YouTube's algorithm.
Known as the 'fairy of gymnastics' and 'the nation's little sister,' Son Yeon-jae received nationwide love. After retiring from the sport, she married a husband who is nine years older in August 2022. She gave birth to a son in February last year and opened a personal YouTube channel, posting daily videos about parenting and childbirth, thus sharing her current state. Particularly, the video revealing her newlywed home garnered attention with 740,000 views.
However, a situation arose where Son Yeon-jae's YouTube channel was suddenly deleted. Some raised suspicions that it may have been deleted by envious internet users targeting Son Yeon-jae. She is known to have suffered from such internet users, even during her active career as an athlete. There were also negative comments regarding her YouTube channel content, labeling it as "showing off money" and "promoting relative deprivation." Just before the channel deletion, a recent video titled 'Essential video before childbirth! Revealing Son Yeon-jae's bought baby items' sparked debates.
In this regard, a representative from Son Yeon-jae's agency, The Seed Company, explained to OSEN that "it is true that Son Yeon-jae's YouTube channel was deleted and then restored. YouTube assumed there was a violation of community guidelines and deleted it, but after the production team filed an appeal, it was confirmed that there were no violations, leading to its restoration. We do not know the specific reasons, but we received a response from YouTube explaining that it was a mistake due to an algorithm error and included an apology."
In fact, some channels on YouTube have been abruptly deleted recently. As AI technology has become widely spread, concerns over low-quality content, fake news, and misinformation related to state-sponsored propaganda from countries like China and Russia in the United States have increased, leading to stricter deletion policies. Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) is known to have deleted over 23,000 accounts in just the first quarter while responding to global misinformation operations.
Additionally, according to Google's website, YouTube's community guidelines regulate harassment and cyberbullying, harmful or dangerous content, hate speech, violent or explicit content, and disinformation. If the algorithm determines there are violations, channels may be deleted without prior notice. However, there is currently no compensation for the damages incurred. There are also increasing calls for compensation measures due to indiscriminate algorithm filtering, separate from filtering actions to prevent degradation of content quality.
[Photo] OSEN DB, YouTube source.
[OSEN]